‘A dark day for Indian democracy’: Top lawyer found guilty of contempt for tweets criticising Supreme Court

Judges have ‘let the republic down’, says leading historian. By Jon Sharman

Prashant Bhushan pictured in 2019. He now faces six months in prison (Getty Images)

India's Supreme Court has found a leading human rights lawyer guilty of contempt after he posted tweets criticising judicial conduct, in what critics called a “dark day” for the country.

Prashant Bhushan faces up to six months in prison after judges found him guilty of the colonial-era charge of “scandalising the court”.

They objected to two tweets Mr Bhushan posted earlier this year which have since been deleted by Twitter, and accused him of distorting facts.

The first post criticised chief justice Sharad Arvind Bobde for posing without a mask during lockdown on a motorbike “belonging to a BJP [India’s ruling party] leader”.

The second set out the lawyer’s belief that “when historians in future look back at the last six years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the Supreme Court”.

Mr Bhushan will be sentenced on 20 August, reports said.

Previously, more than 130 prominent lawyers, academics and ex-judges signed an open letter calling for the charges to be dropped. They called Mr Bhushan “a relentless crusader for the rights of the weakest sections of our society” and accused the Supreme Court of failing in its duty to scrutinise India’s elected government.

Following the court’s verdict, Amnesty India called for the repeal of the law under which the 63-year-old was found guilty. “Outdated provisions of criminal contempt laws in India must not be used to punish critics of the judiciary,” it said in a statement.

It added: “The United Nations Human Rights Committee which monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – to which India is a state party – has noted that all public figures and public institutions are legitimately subject to criticism.”

Ramachandra Guha, a leading Indian historian, tweeted: “Through this act, the Supreme Court has let itself down, and has let the republic down too. A dark day for Indian democracy.”

And Meenakshi Ganguly, the south Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told The Independent: “The Supreme Court of India has often been admired for taking a principled position on defending freedom of expression and fundamental rights, including, for instance, ruling that the sedition law cannot be used against peaceful ideological views.

“It is therefore sad that the judges chose to treat as contempt remarks from a respected lawyer who had expressed disappointment about the court’s failure to act swiftly on rights protection.”